Posted
by
timothyon Friday June 06, 2008 @05:17AM
from the apb-for-winston-smith dept.

MrSteveSD writes "The Daily Mail is reporting that local councils have been using the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on people's phone and email records. Reasons given for the surveillance include checking for evidence of people storing petrol without permission and investigating unburied animal carcasses. The surveillance was uncovered using Freedom of Information laws. The scope of the RIPA act is staggering. It would be simpler to list who isn't allowed to access your phone and email records. Aside from political action, what can be done technologically to combat this threat? Use Skype rather than the normal telephone?"

I went for a job in local government just last week and one of the interview questions was "What legislation, acts and policies are relevant to the job?"

I mentioned all the usual - data protection act, freedom of information act, computer misuse act, health and safety at work act as well as standards policies like BS7799 etc. and then I also mentioned RIPA.

The guy interviewing gave the response "Oh I'd not heard of that one before".